Toxins may be defined as substances which produce physical, emotional, and psychological imbalances in an individual. In modern time the concept of natural cleansing and detoxification of human body is in lime light as the society has increasingly been exposed to toxic compounds such as those present in air, water and foods. Even the beauty and personal care products we use include harmful substances such as petroleum, chemicals and various other toxins. Further most of the foods we eat are produced by using artificial hormones, insecticides and other chemicals which destroy vitamins and essential nutrition and can cause toxin formation in our body. Cigarette smoke, alcohol, different medication, drugs are also examples of toxic sources and it has become apparent that our ability to detoxify substance to which we are exposed is of critical importance to our overall health and to avoid multiple complications. Toxins can also be generated within the body from viral, bacterial or fungal infections (as in the case of candidiasis) and other illnesses which also impact the immune system. Further, toxin and hormones generated as a result of stress and negative mental attitude of urban life style are pressing liver and kidney to such an extent that such organs can not cope with the ever increasing load of toxins. Toxins can damage the body in insidious and cumulative ways by affecting the immune system.
Poor diet, junk food, alcohol, medication, overall poor health of the body and its organs and environmental toxicity all help to contribute to the excessive amount of toxins in the body, which are in general play a major role to cause stress and other life style disorders.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that more than 270 million people are susceptible of falling victim to diseases linked to unhealthy lifestyles. Over-the-counter, prescriptions, and recreational (illicit) drugs complete the picture, taxing the human body beyond its natural capabilities of detoxification.
The body works tirelessly to naturally remove toxins through our urine, sweat and stools. However, these toxins can be built up in the body to harmful levels which increases the chance of illnesses from minor, major to critical one. Toxins begin to affect the functioning of our body, especially the functioning of vital organ like the liver, kidney and brain.
In an attempt to detoxify bodily toxin, U.S. Patent application No. 2006/0269567 provides an universal detoxifying composition based on Chinese medicines comprising extracts of various herbs such as Radix Rehmannica, Scutellariae Racis, Rhei Rhizoma, Mirabilite Pawde, Herba Taraxaci, Herba Violae, Puemariae Radix, Fructus Viticis, Fructus Forsythiae, Gardeniae Fructus, Sophara Flavescens Aiton, in the form of a water tonic or pill for the prevention and treatment of cancer.
In another attempt, U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,705 provides a composition for detoxification for chronic alcoholics and hard line drug addicts which may not be useful for removal or detoxification of regularly generated bodily toxins.
Both the above mentioned document are aimed at overcoming acute intoxicated or disease condition and no attempt is given to tackle toxin generated on daily basis or toxins resulted our living style, environment, genetic predisposition and emotional pattern. This toxin in turn acts as underlying problem for other ensuing diseases or ailments in terms of non-specific illness such as fatigue, headaches, insomnia, bad breath, muscle stiffness, depression, allergies, etc and specific-illness such as migraine, arthritis, psoriasis, influenza, sinusitis, immune deficiencies, tumors.
In this respect, currently available forms of herbal detoxifiers includes syrup, tonic, tablet, capsules such as formulation of Neem & Manjistha commercially available as Active Dabur syrup, a formulation of Anantmool (Hemidesmus indica), Haritaki (Terminalia chebula), Chirayata (Swertia chirata), Kalmegh (Anchrographic paniculata), Rewachini (Rheum emodi), Amaltas (Cassia fistula) and honey available as Baidyanath Raktashodhak vati, a formulation of Cassia angustifolia, Sphaeranthus indicus and Rosa damascena commerically available as Hamdard Safi syrup, a formulation of Cassia fistula, Psoralea corylifolia), Saussurea lappa, Picrorhiza kurroa, Neem (Azadirachta indica), Gulancha tinospora/Guduchi, Triphala consisting of Indian gooseberry/Amalaki (Emblica officinalis), Chebulic myrobalan (Terminalia chebula) and Belleric myrobalan (Terminalia bellerica) and Kalamegha (Andrographis paniculata) available in the name of Himalaya Purim tablets and Himani Lalima syrup including Triphala, Neem, Bhringaraj, Manjistha and Honey etc.
The majority of the herbs used are essentially known as detoxifying herbs individually in the existing art. When these herbs are used in a composition or made into a formulation, the amounts of individual herbs administered to achieve therapeutic activity are of high threshold. This is because of the fact that such herbs/active ingredients used in the above mentioned formulation do not have any cumulative therapeutic effect/synergistic effect in terms of removing toxins from the body. Further the active ingredients are of bitter taste with extremely low bio-availability profile due their low solubility and as such all of these formulation are have serious patient compliance problems such as bitter taste and less bio-availability. In order to circumvent the low bio-availability issue and achieving desired therapeutic activity, the amount of dosage prescribed for these formulations are substantially high and therefore risk significant side effects.
Further, all such commercially available detoxifiers use honey or sugar component in order to overcome bitter taste to some extent. But such use of sugar contributes significantly in generation of stress and calorie intake of an individual which pose another problem for the patients.
Accordingly, taste masking for these formulations are a technical problem and the ease of administration for herbal detoxifier formulation and to increase their bio-availability is also a challenge to overcome.
Moreover, since all the available detoxifier formulations are taken as traditional medicine, patient need to change their normal habit & keep themselves reminded of schedule of taking medicine and thus these formulation compromise on patient compliance.
Therefore, an alternative treatment in a novel drug delivery form with greater efficacy and bio-availability of active herbal ingredients at a very less quantity for detoxification of human body, through the use of less number of ingredients in a synergistic manner, must be studied and developed. Novel drug delivery strategies have also been instrumental in optimizing efficacy of therapeutic agents by either modulating their physico-chemical and bio-pharmaceutical properties or minimizing/eliminating the side effects associated with them, reducing treatment time thus offering better patient compliance.
Therefore, there is an utmost societal need to develop such composition and formulations which are effective for blood purification, blood detoxification and stress relieving. At the same time there is a need to provide such detoxifier and stress relieving composition in a form that provide better patent compliance and machetes with lifestyles of growing urban population.